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But perhaps we should rather speak of some single category,
embracing Intellectual Substance, Matter, Form, and the Composite
of Matter and Form. One might refer to the family of the
Heraclids as a unity in the sense, not of a common element in all
its members, but of a common origin: similarly, Intellectual
Substance would be Substance in the first degree, the others
being substances by derivation and in a lower degree.
But what is the objection to including everything in a single
category, all else of which existence is predicated being derived
from that one thing, Existence or Substance? Because, granted
that things be no more than modifications of Substance, there is
a distinct grading of substances themselves. Moreover, the single
category does not put us in a position to build on Substance, or
to grasp it in its very truth as the plausible source of the
other substances.
Supposing we grant that all things known as substances are
homogeneous as possessing something denied to the other genera,
what precisely is this something, this individuality, this
subject which is never a predicate, this thing not present in any
thing as in a subject, this thing which does not owe its
essential character to any other thing, as a quality takes
character from a body and a quantity from a substance, as time is
related to motion and motion to the moved?
The Second Substance is, it is true, a predicate. But predication
in this case signifies a different relation from that just
considered; it reveals the genus inherent in the subject and the
subject's essential character, whereas whiteness is predicated of
a thing in the sense of being present in the thing.
The properties adduced may indeed be allowed to distinguish
Substance from the other Existents. They afford a means of
grouping substances together and calling them by a common name.
They do not however establish the unity of a genus, and they do
not bring to light the concept and the nature of Substance.
These considerations are sufficient for our purpose: let us now
proceed to investigate the nature of Quantity.
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